In the middle of our bank line the river is within 2-3 ft from coming
over the bank. In the lowest potion it's close to 1 ft before coming
over.

Sadly this is what ends up happening to our land during


high water. It doesn't get eaten away it simply gets wet, heavy


and then sluffs off. *sigh*



This is the "before", dated 5/21/09

This is today, it probably 2-3 ft higher. Up above us, in a town

36 miles to our SW, they are at above flood stage. We're still okay

here and it is fore casted to be cooler this coming week, so....

it should slow down the snow pack melt and thus the river should

drop a bit

Another before from 5/21/09

Today's picture, as you can see we've lost a bit of land in the middle

of the photo and some of the nub closest to where I'm standing.

Well..... we're off to a BBQ at some friends. When Mike called to see

what we could bring, he was told ourselves. After some

tit for tatting.... we're bringing the ice for ice tea, lemonade and pop.

I just hate going, without bringing something. It will be fun to relax a bit!

See you sometime this week. The bind weed is kicking it into overdrive,

we're doing our best to stay up with it, if not ahead.

Blessing to each of you!

Remember the two hens setting together, well......

Here is their first hatched chick....

Their second......

Third.....

and this is #four. They still had half dozen eggs left to hatch,

but both want to be mamas. The six eggs they abandon are now

under our turkey hens! We are checking several times a day to

see if any hatch. If so then we'll give them to the two hens.

Experimenting with hot house tomatoes, so far

they look good and are blooming nicely.

Some seedlings and our early lettuce. The (forefront) pot

is a snake gourd, Cortney is growing in the hot house.

More tomato and cabbage seedlings at different stages, again

experimenting.

Remember the Pupa? Well we've been watching it

and now you can see the color pattern in the wings.

Sadly our camera just isn't good enough to pick that up.

We're storing this in the greenhouse covered with cheese cloth

and think we'll see a hawk moth soon! We'll post pictures before

we release it.

If you click on this photo and see the enlarged version, you can see

some of the changes we're talking about, you'll have to look though.

Today we're just setting water in the garden and yard. We mowed

and weed whacked yesterday from 10am- until 2:30 pm. Cortney

actually finished before me( I weed whacked the whole yard and

then some before mowing) so bless her heart she let the horse out

on pasture( for his two hours), bedded the cow barns, cleaned Mo's

corral and then made lunch for both of us, pizza.

Mike is supposed to be off this weekend, but unfortunately

it's end of the month, so inventory is done at the store and the

rule is that everyone does inventory! He'll be off by about noon

because we have to take Cortney into meet her youth group. They

will be spending the afternoon(1pm. to 6pm) paint balling( paintball

war). Mike asked her if she understood that it hurts when you are

hit and she said yes. She's been looking forward to this since Wens.

nights youth group meeting. Last week, she shared her testimony

with the group, and everyone thought she did a wonderful job,

she was so..... nervous. It helps them to understand the trials

she's already endured and the praises she has for God's work in her

life. Mike and I both take her today because the Youth group

leaders have changed and we have not met them yet.

I'm praying she has a wonderful time and yes, Mom has made

sure she has eye safety equipment, we don't want to take any

chances! *wink*

Praying your weekend is full of Blessings!

Show and Tell

This is the necklace and braclet Cortney made at our beginner beading
class last night. I thought being outside it would show the beautiful
colors, but alas the camera just doesn't do it justice *sigh*
We also learned how to make ear rings, but ran out of time.
There is a better picture below( 3rd), at least it shows the color better

This is the necklace and bracelet I made. I'm not a jewelry person, so
thought that smaller beads were better. The main beads are Mother
of pearl and then crystal beads and silver spacers to offset it. It's 200%
more beautiful than the picture shows, and that is credit to the
beautiful beads not my work.


Here the color is better of Cortney's, but still not doing it it's full justice.

The result of the rhubarb in the 5 gallon bucket. We made this pan of

crisp and plan to make rhubarb sauce and can it, with the remainder.

Rhubarb is an acquired taste and we tend to like ours on the tart side,

so we don't overload it with sugar.

Rhubarb, like dandelion greens is a good Spring tonic to cleanse your

liver. Most likely, it is best eaten raw, provided you can stand it that

way! *LOL*

Shows the bags full, these are gallon size. We've stored them for a

few days, until we have time to make and can the sauce. I need to bring

up a couple dozen pint jars, my waterbath canner, lids and needed

items. Sure wish the strawberries were ripe, we'd make Strawberry

Rhubard jam and pie, YUMMMMMM.....! The strawberries are just

now beginning to bloom and I have first dibs on the biggest ripe one

I can find! *wink*

Tomatoes and peppers all snug and warm with their walls of water.
Most of these walls of water are 8-9 yrs old and although we weeded
out many last Fall( due to several of the cells leaking) we found 3-4 more
to cull out this Fall. Mike is going to see if he can order these through
the supplier the Coop deals with. This would be a blessing as they are
spendy and we could order a few over several months. Our plan is
to have a hoop house up next Spring so we won't plan to purchase many,
only as replacements.

You can see our layout for irrigating. We left enough room to till
between the rows, otherwise I'd never get anything done, other than
hoeing *wink*

We've planted 6 half rows of sweet corn, when these are 4-5" tall we'll
plant the remaining 6 half rows. We're also putting up an electric fence
around the corn and melons. Last year we had 10 rows, 80 ft long, and
after the coons ravaged it we salvaged 2 meals worth *Grrrrr...* Then
the deer managed to take a test bite out of 95% of our melons( while
still green, might I add!), just enough to cause them to shrivel and rot.

Okay I need to get the first load of laundry hung out and Cortney and I

will head out to clean barns.

Praying you see the many blessing around you today.

A quick breakfast, Raisin Cinnamon biscuits with a glaze, we
actually made these fresh yesterday.( sorry the picture is blurry)

Our first harvest of Rhubarb. I think we'll be seeing pie

or crisp in the next few days. Beyond laundry, light weeding,

and watering we'll be cutting up and preserving this bounty, today!

A shot to give an idea of where all the garden plots are

situated. The plot in front of the shed has, garlic, walking onions

parsnips, lettuce, spinach, kale, mustard, and beets. You can see

three walls of water, those are extra tomato plants and that is

a strip approx. 3-4 ft wide and 100 ft long. The zucchini, squash

and mangle beets are planted in this plot.( you can click on photo to

see a large version)

This is a little galvanized bucket Mike brought home from work

a few yrs back and of course it fit right on top of an old rust milk can

so we filled it with soil and plant flowers in it. This season we put

wild flower seeds in it and they all look to have germinated, it's packed

I'm going to have thin it a bit * wink*

This is our Painted Mountain corn from last season. It hangs

in our front porch area that we have set up for hanging herbs.

This corn is not only pretty but very high in protein for grinding

into cornmeal.

Speaking of herbs, we'll be harvesting and drying; Greek Oregano,

Russian Tarragon, Comfrey, Wormwood, Peppermint, Chocolate mint,

Sage and Chamomile late this week or early next, before they go

to seed. We typically harvest( on a good year, when we have the time)

two or three times.

Our weekend was pretty laid back. We took lilacs into the city to

place on Mike's grandparents grave on Sunday.

Sadly again this year ours were the only flowers on their grave or

on his Great Aunt Leona's grave.

It's not that we only remember them on this weekend, but we do feel

led to honor their memory by cleaning around the headstones and

placing a few flowers. My Dad had gone in on Saturday to place

flowers on his Dad's, an Uncles and his Grandparents graves.

Usually we have irises and sometime day lilies but this year they

are a bit behind, and lilacs were about all we had readily available.

Thank you just doesn't seem enough, for those who've served or are serving, gave/give their lives, or lost a loved one, all in the name of protecting our freedoms. Say Thank you and give a hug, or shake a hand of a veteran, or family member of a lost veteran this weekend. Let them know how much we appreciate their dedication and sacrifice.

Here is a story of Marines by a Marine;

Cemetery Escort Duty:I just wanted to get the day over with and go down to Smokey's. Sneaking a look at my watch, I saw the time, 1655. Five minutes to go before the cemetery gates are closed for the day. Full dress was hot in the August sun. Oklahoma summertime was as bad as ever--the heat and humidity at the same level--both too high.

I saw the car pull into the drive, '69 or '70 model Cadillac Deville, looked factory-new. It pulled into the parking lot at a snail's pace. An old woman got out so slow I thought she was paralyzed; she had a cane and a sheaf of flowers--about four or five bunches as best I could tell.I couldn't help myself. The thought came unwanted, and left a slightly bitter taste: 'She's going to spend an hour, and for this old soldier, my hip hurts like hell and I'm ready to get out of here right now!' But for this day, my duty was to assist anyone coming in.

Kevin would lock the 'In' gate and if I could hurry the old biddy along, we might make it to Smokey's in time.I broke post attention. My hip made gritty noises when I took the first step and the pain went up a notch. I must have made a real military sight: middle-aged man with a small pot gut and half a limp, in marine full-dress uniform, which had lost its razor crease about thirty minutes after I began the watch at the cemetery.

I stopped in front of her, halfway up the walk. She looked up at me with an old woman's squint.'Ma'am,may I assist you in any way?'She took long enough to answer.'Yes, son. Can you carry these flowers? I seem to be moving a tad slow these days.''My pleasure, ma'am.' Well, it wasn't too much of a lie.She looked again. 'Marine, where were you stationed?''Vietnam, ma'am. Ground-pounder. '69 to '71.'She looked at me closer. 'Wounded in action, I see. Well done, Marine. I'll be as quick as I can.'I lied a little bigger: 'No hurry, ma'am.'She smiled and winked at me. 'Son, I'm 85-years-old and I can tell a lie from a long way off. Let's get this done. Might be the last time I can do this. My name's Joanne Wieserman and I've a few Marines I'd like to see one more time.''Yes, ma 'am At your service.'She headed for the World War I section, stopping at a stone. She picked one of the flowers out of my arm and laid it on top of the stone. She murmured something I couldn't quite make out. The name on the marble was Donald S. Davidson, USMC: France 1918.She turned away and made a straight line for the World War II section, stopping at one stone. I saw a tear slowly tracking its way down her cheek. She put a bunch on a stone. The name was Stephen X. Davidson, USMC, 1943.She went up the row a ways and laid another bunch on a stone, Stanley J. Wieserman, USMC, 1944.She paused for a second. 'Two more, son, and we'll be done'I almost didn't say anything, but, 'Yes, ma'am. Take your time.'She looked confused. 'Where's the Vietnam section, son? I seem to have lost my way.'I pointed with my chin. 'That way, ma'am.''Oh!' she chuckled quietly. 'Son, me and old age ain't too friendly.' She headed down the walk I'd pointed at. She stopped at a couple of stones before she found the ones she wanted. She placed a bunch on Larry Wieserman, USMC, 1968, and the last on Darrel Wieserman, USMC, 1970. She stood there and murmured a few words I still couldn't make out.'OK, son, I'm finished. Get me back to my car and you can go home.'Yes, ma'am. If I may ask, were those your kinfolk?' She paused. 'Yes, Donald Davidson was my father, Stephen was my uncle, Stanley was my husband, Larry and Darrel were our sons. All killed in action, all Marines.'She stopped. Whether she had finished, or couldn't finish, I don't know.

She made her way to her car, slowly and painfully.I waited for a polite distance to come between us and then double-timed it over to Kevin, waiting by the car.'Get to the 'Out' gate quick. I have something I've got to do.'Kevin started to say something, but saw the look I gave him.. He broke the rules to get us there down the service road. We beat her. She hadn't made it around the rotunda yet.'Kevin, stand at attention next to the gatepost. Follow my lead. I humped it across the drive to the other post.When the Cadillac came puttering around from the hedges and began the short straight traverse to the gate, I called in my best gunny's voice: 'TehenHut! Present Haaaarms!'I have to hand it to Kevin. He never blinked an eye--full dress attention and a salute that would make his DI proud.She drove through that gate with two old worn-out soldiers giving her a send-off she deserved, for service rendered to her country, and for knowing duty, honor and sacrifice.I am not sure, but I think I saw a salute returned from that Cadillac.

Instead of 'The End,' just think of 'Taps.'

As a final thought on my part, let me share a favorite prayer:

'Lord, keep our servicemen and women safe, whether they serve at home or overseas. Hold them in your loving hands and protect them as they protect us.'Let's all keep those currently serving and those who have gone before in our thoughts. They are the reason for the many freedoms we enjoy.

'In God We Trust.'

Sorry about your monitor; it made mine blurry too!

If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under!

Update on our local murder, :o(

This is the article that appeared on our local news web page. They lowered the bond to 500K. I took the liberty to delete town, and county info, for our privacy. It's below, I still have troubles operating this blog stuff. Our county has no record of a murder in this town and it's been a decade since the last murder in the county. Our town is in shock and as most small towns also is buzzing with rumors*sigh* The boys are the real victims now. Please hold them up in prayer.

Updated:("May 22, 2009 7:02 PM EST"); May 22, 2009 05:02 PM MDT One man is dead and another in custody after a shooting Thursday night just outside of_( our town). According to________ County Sheriff's Officer Lt. Josh McQuillan, the shooting happened just after 10:00 p.m. last night. ________ County Attorney says the suspect, Larry Daniels, 65, is in custody at the ____________ _________ Detention Facility. Daniels has been charged with deliberate homicide and appeared before ______ County Justice of the Peace Friday morning via teleconference. Bond was set at $500,000. The victim died of gunshot wounds, an autopsy will be completed in________. Investigators from the Montana Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigation, are assisting the __________ County Sheriff's Office.

This and That, Before and Afters and an Urgent Prayer Request

A shot of Mo grazing in front of the cow barns.

You can barely see the asparagus, I guess I should have wet the soil.

I planted these last Fall, they're a shared gift from a friend. It will be a

few years before we get a harvest, but it's a start.

Look at the picture below, to see how bad the weeds had invaded

I'm paying for not being able to keep up, due to my back last season

I was surprised to see that so many strawberries pressed on in

competition with all the weeds. The strawberries in the raised bed

are ever bearing and the ones around the perimeter are June bearers.

still have two sides to weed out, but have to take it in small bites so my

back doesn't flare up. I watered them good yesterday, so pulling weeds

should be easier over the next few days.

I'm embarrassed to even show this to all of you. On a positive

note, you can see with your own eyes we do garden naturally *grin, wink*

Yes we have dandelions, so what if we have yellow dotted throughout

our property. The cows, horse and birds live them and you should

see the honey bees!

Without many details, I'd like to ask those of you who pray to send up

special prayers for two young boys in our area.

A little background; As many of you have read, Mike is a EMT.

Last night about 10 pm the ambulance tones came across the radio.

Mike is on call this week, but actually covered for a fellow EMT two weeks

ago, so this EMT was covering for Mike.

The call came in as a gun involved and to stage away from the scene,

no other details. Mike responded to scene, not sure of what had happened

or how much help would be needed.

To make this short, a man was fatally shot and two boys witnessed this.

One boy lost his father to the shooting and the other boys father was

arrested. It's terrible for all involved, but it's been heavy on my heart for

these boys. Please hold them up in prayer and I probably won't have

any updates, because this is a very hush, hush situation.

It has been on the news( radio and TV) because Jon heard it

They reported the location wrong and said it was a place on the river by

the bridge. We're second to last from the bridge, so he was concerned

about who this was( knowing it wasn't us or he'd have heard).

Just a few pictures of the river.

Just had to share the lilacs, they smell wonderful
and this picture in no way does them justice!

This is the shallow end of our property, it's still 3 ft

from the edge. This will be our baseline photo in this spot.

This picture( if you click on photo, it will enlarge) is the best

shot I could get without the hot wire getting me! When the river

is at normal levels the far( closest to the shop in background)

it's probably a 9-10 ft drop to water. Now today, it's closer to

4-5 ft.

Planting, watering and picken weeds

Yep, it the same ole, same ole here. We're just busy planting, watering and pick'en weeds. The heat wave has caused a bit of a concern, the river has risen over 5 ft in three days! It's still 4-5 ft down on our bank, PTL, but it's raging and muddy! We've decided not to let the cows or Mo out in the back pasture, until Mike has a chance to move the electric fence in 5-6 ft more from the edge. Our soil is sandy and when it gets wet the bank tends to sluff off in big portions*sigh*. Right now the electric fence is 4 ft from the edge but just to be safe we want it back further. Button, our Dexter heifer, has been know to test the fence and if it were to go over she'd be right there and we don't want her to fall in, she'd be gone in a flash and probably would drown. I'll try to get pictures today and everyday following so you can see the advancing of the rising water. For the next few days it's only fore casted to be into the high 60's and mid to low 70's F so we pray this slows down the run off flow in the mountains. My Dad came over last evening asking Mike to bring his 22cal. and hurry! He told us that they'd been watching a raccoon for several minutes try to climb our neighbors fence and kept falling off. Okay you ask what's the hurry in that, well.... it was full daylight yet 7pm. and coons just don't come out that early. We knew there had been a coon about, because something stole some of our turkeys eggs and at night my Mom's dog would raise such a fuss and then there was actually a pile of poo on their front porch the other day. By the time Mike got out to the back pasture where the coon was, the coon wasn't moving, but rather was hunched up in a ball. Mike couldn't make out it's head or tail end so walked closer, cautiously. We also though maybe the coon had rabies or had possibly been poisoned. After Mike made sure it was a coon and not someone cat he shot. The coon stirred enough that with the semi auto 22 he shot once more, a head shot and it was over. The coon appeared to be young ( last years baby) and had no visible signs of rabies, or a wound. Mike handled it, taking the necessary precautions in case it was rabies. The whole thing was amiss, a coon out in broad daylight, having difficulty climbing a fence, hunched up and still. If it is someone setting out poison, that grieves me because it isn't just coons who end up dead, but a great many beloved pets, hawks, owls, eagles, fox, vultures, etc...... Better get a move on it, I'm slacking when I need to be getting water going, cows out and barns cleaned and then back to planting and weeding. Blessing to each of you.

Bread recipes

Bread baked yesterday. It's whole wheat and I'll re post the
the recipe below. I originally posted this recipe and another
On Feb11Th's blog. I will try to find time to share some sourdough
favorites as well. I need to freshen my sourdough, so will post
pictures and recipes of what we make.

The one on the left has air pockets in the top,
see the sunken crust. I was in a hurry and didn't work the air
out when forming the loaves. Oh! well it tastes just as good,
especially hot from the oven with fresh butter, YUMMY!


Homemade Bread( whole wheat) is an area to save and provide a more nutritious food.
Here are a couple of our family favorites.


Whole Wheat Bread
3c. very warm water( I use filtered)
1/3c. oil or melted lard
1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. salt ( or to taste, we use 1 tsp.)
1 egg( beaten)
3 c. whole wheat flour
1-1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast
4-5 c. unbleached flour
Stir together water, oil, sugar, salt and egg into a large bowl. Mix yeast with 2.c. whole wheat flour and 2c. unbleached flour. Then add to liquid. Stir vigorously for a minute. Add remaining 1 c. whole wheat flour and enough unbleached( 3-4c.), one cup at a time, to make a soft dough. Fold out onto a well floured board or counter top. Knead for 8 minutes( yes the whole entire time if you want good texture) Place kneaded dough into a well greased( large) bowl. Let rise until double in size. Punch down and flip over, now let rise a second hour until double in size. Punch down and form into loaves( this recipe makes 3 large loaves), buns, bread sticks, etc..... Let rise again until double and bake in a moderate 325-350F oven until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on. I typically brush with olive oil or butter to soften the top crust. If making into bread sticks brush with oil or butter and add seeds( sesame, sunflower, flax, etc....) and or cheese( Cheddar, Romano, even Feta)before baking. Just be sure to watch items with seeds or cheese as they burn easily.
Enjoy!



Birdseed Bread( a whole grain bread)
This recipe may be doubled or tripled if necessary( it would be a lot of dough to work with, so I just do batches)
Oven setting: 375F
Yield: 3 large or 4 medium loaves
4 c. warm water
2Tbsp. Yeast ( or two packages)
½ c. brown sugar or molasses ( I prefer molasses)
½ c. honey
½ cup oil ( olive or grape seed is what I use)
4 tsp. salt( otherwise bread has a flat taste)
About 12 c. flour ( usually use unbleached white and whole wheat with a 4:1, white/wheat ratio
1/2c. Of any or each of the following wheat, spelt, oats, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, barley, course ground corn meal, millet and any other grains you may have.

Boil the hard grains ( do not boil the sesame or sunflower seeds) in more water than needed until they are soft and chewy.When draining the water from the boiled grains measure the water toward the 4cups needed for the recipe. This contain vitamins, minerals and gluten for the elastic power of the dough.Cool grains and water before adding the following mixture:Dissolve yeast in warm water, add molasses, honey, oil and salt. Stir well and add cooled grains and sesame and sunflower seeds. Measure flour into separate bowl. Add flour mixture to wet mixture, holding back about 2cups You’ll have to get in there with your hands and mix it well( messy part). Now flour counter or board heavily and knead dough( HINT: do not over add flour, it supposed to be sticky, use oil on hands to keep dough from sticking) until smooth and satiny with grains( about 8-10 minutes). Place in a large, well greased bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm area until double. Punch down and repeat a second rise( this rise is not necessary, but helps give a finer texture to the bread) Punch down again and form into loaves, placing in greased and floured pans. (Dough can be frozen at this stage. When frozen place in pan, cover lightly and let thaw and then rise.) Let rise about 20 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes @375, then reduce heat to 350 for 30 more minutes. Bread will be a beautiful chestnut brown, and will sound hollow when “thumped” on the top. I butter the tops and place on a cooling rack for about an hour (Well, we may sneak some while it’s still hot ) Freeze cooled bread and when thawed it will be as moist and nice as fresh baked bread.

ENJOY!!!!!!

It was Mikes day off and we needed to run into the city for an appointment. After the appointment we ran a few errands before heading for home.

Once home Mike began working on getting our pump for yard and garden up and running. We ended up having to purchase a new pump as the old one rusted( our water here is heavily laden with minerals that literally eat metal *sigh*) Since we bought a new pump, Mike wanted to add more spigots so we can have three for just the garden and he is going to make PVC line spigots( I'll get pictures when he's through making them) so we have 8 faucets to run hose with bubblers. We probably won't run all 8 at once, but even 3-4 will be a blessing in helping to get the garden flood irrigated quicker. He got the pump up and running and he worked on getting the onions flooded and then hooked up a rain bird to water the potato patch. I was watering flowerbeds and the wildflowers on the root cellar. We also flooded fruit trees and had a sprinkler running on the strawberries( which are beginning to bloom)

If our weather cooperates and the wind doesn't blow like today, we hope to get the remainder of our seeds planted and the cabbage all planted. Tomatoes and peppers we'll wait until the weekend, so we can have Mike's help in getting the "walls of water" around each of them. One thing my back doesn't take well, is standing bent over for long periods of time and that is exactly what you do when setting up the "walls of water". So I plant the plants and Mike and Cortney get the walls of water all set up and filled, then I go back and water everything in good.

Well, I need to write a letter to my Grandma, who BTW is 93 yrs old and is my best pen pal! Her handwriting is getting tougher to read, but we still love her letters.

May the remainder of your week be blessed and productive.

Callie found a shady spot to rest. Our temp was as high as 96F today!
Quite a change from 50's and 60'sF, it caught everyone off guard.

The chickens enjoying some kitchen scraps in the shade.

Our two mamas, they had to set together. Each of them has 7 eggs,

we pray they all hatch.

Our lone turkey poult. We're praying the other three hens

setting have good hatches.

Here is a little better picture, it's still hard to see, good camouflage.

You can click on the photo to enlarge.

We're still planting the garden. Today we planted beets, mini pumpkins

and mapped out the rest of the garden and marked with wooden

markers.

Laundry was done today as well. We were blessed to be able to hang

out 6 loads, as each load dried quickly in our hot temps.

Bread was baked today as well. We bake 3 loaves every other week.

It seems we tend to consume more bread, via sandwiches, in the

summer months. So we'll most likely bake bread weekly from here

on out.

This is a picture of our back entry, actually it's our main entry.
Right now we can enjoy our patio because the mosquitoes are
not out yet. This entry leads into our mud/laundry room and then
into the kitchen. The solid brown door( behind the rustic bench)
is an outside entry to our pantry, we also have an inside door.

You can click on the picture to enlarge, then you can see
the hanging flowers. We so enjoy sitting out on the swing
or at the table after a long days work. The trees are full
of birds singing and it's just so peaceful and quiet.


We cleaned out about half of our herbs( along left side of picture)
and hoed weeds from between herbs and down the pathway.
You can see the grape arbors in the background, they are just
beginning to bud. Both grape vines are Concords.



Not much to look at yet, nothing is up yet. Mike and I
have been working out some problems in our gardening,
one of which is getting the rows to flood quicker. We
decided to make a pathway down the middle and make
two mainline irrigation pipes, down the herb path as well as
down the middle pathway,with 3-4 spickets, ea. to hook 20 ft
hoses and bubblers to. This way we can irrigate 6-8 rows at one
time verses currently we irrigate only 3 at a time.





The rhubarb is ready for the first harvest and I can't wait
dig out our favorite rhubarb recipes.
Around the rhubarb I planted asparagus( last Fall) and they
are doing well, although it will be a few seasons before we
get a good harvest.





The garlic and our walking onions. Yes the onions are still in need
of serious thinning. I was waiting for our pump to be up and running
so I could water good the day before and then thin. I'm going to
chop up the ones we thin, freeze some and dehydrate the
rest. I chop up the tops as well. Anything culled is fed to
the turkeys, they absolutely love them.

Speaking of turkeys, we only have one poult, so far *sigh*
This is one lucky poult, it has two mamas and they both
are doing a wonderful job. We still have three hens setting,
one is getting overdue, so her eggs may not be any good. We
try not to bother them, as they will leave a nest if bothered
to much. We will candle her eggs tomorrow. As I said in an
earlier blog, turkeys are not an easy animals to raise. I'm
praying we do get several to hatch and survive from the
two remaining hens. I'll try to get a picture of the little poult.
That all depends on if I can get his two mamas to move out
of the way long enough.